Climate Change — Why 2016 May be the Most Important Election in US History

“I have talked to scientists all over the world. And what they are telling me — if we don’t get our act together — this planet could be 5-10 degrees warmer by the end of this Century! Cataclysmic problems for this planet! This is a national crisis!” — Bernie Sanders, Michigan Democratic Debate, March 6th.

(Bernie Sanders pledges to end fracking and tackle climate change in the Michigan Democratic debate last night.)

Last night, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton gave a spirited debate over substantive issues. To someone who respects political figures who address problems and actively seek solutions, it was a welcome respite from the most recent low-information, public action denigrating, Republican wrangle. But one two-minute segment in Hillary and Bernie’s exchange really stood out for me. And it’s the clip streaming above where Bernie Sanders tackles the critical issue that is human-caused climate change.

And we should be very clear. Bernie is absolutely right — it’s a national crisis that will become an existential crisis if we don’t act swiftly, if we don’t act well, and if we aren’t also pretty amazingly lucky.

A Tough, Tough Issue of Critical Importance

Like many who write on this issue, I often find it difficult not to fall into crushing despair. With each post, it’s like seeing the life-blood of our world slowly drip away. It’s a tough, tough issue.

The posts appear to have an impact. There’s a vigorous discussion going on in the comments section. People are actively identifying problems, taking action, doing their best to contribute to solutions. To spread the word. To develop a sense of urgency. But despite the response here, despite the actions of a vast spectrum of other responsible groups around the world, and despite a growing warning and outcry from the scientific community, the world itself seems to be moving far too slowly to effectively confront the crisis.

(Atmospheric CO2 is now reaching levels comparable to those seen during the Middle Miocene. A period of time when the world was both much warmer than today and sea levels were far, far higher. Each year that greenhouse gas emissions continue, more heat, more sea level rise, and more future dangerous climate change is locked in. Image source: The Keeling Curve.)

To be clear, fossil fuel burning now pumps out enough heat trapping gas to equal one Permian Extinction producing volcanic prominence active on every major continent on the Earth and all going off at the same time. It’s a really big deal. One that people probably aren’t quite so aware of because, well, volcanoes are individually more spectacular than billions of tailpipes, coal and gas turbines, and smokestacks. All efficiently, but relatively quietly, throwing up that hothouse extinction producing pallor. One that hangs invisible in the air. But one whose effects are all-too-real.

The 2 C Goal is Pretty Bad; Continued Burning is Far Worse

Attempts to face down this growing threat became apparent in a flurry of new urgency at the Paris Climate Summit. There the strongest international agreement yet on preventing catastrophic climate change was forged as global climate policy makers appeared to have begun to get a whiff of the gravity of our current situation. But the new agreement doesn’t yet produce enough in the way of committed action to prevent 2 C warming this Century. And it’s pretty clear that Paris’s policies will meet stiff opposition from fossil fuel special interests — who exert far too much influence and control over the world’s various political bodies and governing systems even as they have managed to block many helpful policies and pollute public awareness through the active promotion of climate change denial.

2 C warming by 2100, even if we were to make the monumental strides necessary to achieve that limit, is by itself pretty terrible. Though nowhere near as catastrophic as the 3, 4, 5 or 6 C levels of heating that are entirely possible if the world keeps going all out to extract and burn coal, oil and gas, it’s a rate of temperature increase not seen in 55 million years and a level of warming not seen in 2-3 million years. It locks in severe heatwaves the likes of which we’ve never seen before, terrible wildfires, extraordinary rainfall and droughts, monster storms, city-wrecking sea level rise, habitat loss, ocean health decline, glacial melt on a scale that changes the very complexion of the Earth, sea ice winnowing away to a shadow of its former coverage, amplifying Earth System feedbacks, and a whole host of other problems. It also means that the Earth continues to heat up for hundreds of years more unless greenhouse gasses are somehow drawn down — resulting in a long term warming in the range of 4 C so long as climate sensitivity is about what we’ve come to expect from our study of paleoclimate.

Even achieving that rather difficult but probably survivable future will necessitate very swift action. For each year in which a peak in human greenhouse gas emissions is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to limit future warming.

(Amount of warming this Century expected under differing emissions reduction and climate sensitivity scenarios. In the above graph TCRE stands for transient climate response to emissions. It’s basically how much warming you get short term as a result of accumulated greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Note that greenhouse gas emissions need to decline by more than 2 percent per year starting now if we are to have much confidence in avoiding 2 C warming this Century. It’s also worth noting that even a slow decline rate from near now likely locks in about 3 C warming this Century. Image source: Impact of Delay in Reducing CO2 Emissions.)

To this point, if the best case global policy can currently produce is a future in which the world’s temperatures warm by 2 C by 2100, then we have a serious problem. If that’s the case, then what it really boils down to is the fact that civilization this Century faces an existential crisis. A level of geophysical upheaval worse than the end of the last ice age that may all end up being crammed into the next 300 years with a good chunk of it happening this Century.

This is one of the toughest challenges humankind has ever faced. And its solutions require an unprecedented level of government involvement and activism. It’s for these reasons why it’s pretty amazing that climate change isn’t the central subject of every Presidential debate this year. For who we elect as President will have a significant and important role to play in confronting or facing down this crisis. But so far, candidate comments on climate change have been limited to only the briefest of questions and responses on the democratic side, and to a chilling and all-encompassing climate change denial on the republican side.

This is not how a nation readies itself to effectively confront a very serious crisis. Whispers and denial are not enough. We need strong statements and bold action.

To my mind, so far, Bernie Sanders has been the only candidate to address the problem with the level of urgency the situation warrants. And I suspect he would speak to it more if the question and answer format of the recent debates were not so limiting. Hillary’s own statements seem positive, but it’s pretty clear that much of this is due to Bernie’s own responsible and persistent prodding. A little more ardor on her part would be reassuring.

But the point here is that, according to many of the world’s top climate scientists, we are in a worsening global crisis at this time. If there was ever a time when government climate policy should be front and center as a political issue, then it is now. Rapid and radical efforts are now necessary and warranted. So we should praise Bernie for raising what is an absolutely critical issue. And we should criticize pretty much everyone else for downplaying and denying it.

169 Comments

Cento

Well said, but I fear this moment will pass with the problem unresolved. The political to really do what would be necessary just isn’t there. It will take a really serious and abnormal mass casualty weather event to really prod people into action. At the moment complacency, a sense that the changes are slight and are easily adaptable reigns. There is no political will or, above all, political self-interest from the biggest emitting countries to change. It is all very depressing. I doubt that Hillary if she gets up as I anticipate – I think Trump will flame out – has the political courage to really rock the boat…

Dave Person

Hi,
But Robert, VP is one of the most impotent positions in the US Government unless the president delegates authority to the VP or dies. Clinton could simply bottle Sanders up and make him fade away. He would likely do more good as a senator.

Maybe. Depends on the relationship to staff. Also, don’t discount the power of Bernie’s visibility for 6 months on the campaign trail. It would give him one of the biggest megaphones in the world to inform people. Climate change deniers would have a tough time standing up to him.

JPL

Dan in Oz

I work in climate change/environment policy (in relation to buildings) and my colleague and I have often talked about what it would take to get real change with the urgency we need to stop civilisation crumbling (which, by the way is LONG after the global economy collapsing – that’ll come much sooner!).

But thousands of people dying in Europe from a heatwave in 2003 did virtually nothing, the massive destruction of New Orleans in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina made no difference, Flooding in downtown New York from Hurricane Sandy has done nothing to change policies. The massive ice melt in the Arctic in 2012 has made little difference, year-on-year record-breaking floods in the UK, massive Russian heatwave that cut grain production to levels where Russia stopped exporting grain, monsoon failures, massive pacific storms, 1-in-1000+ year drought in southern California, abnormally warm oceans across the globe, year-long widfires in Siberia and Canada/Alaska, with associated record-high temperatures in summer in those regions…

Short of something akin to weather similar to ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ I have no idea what will be enough to make significant policy changes. If that lot (and much more besides) isn’t focusing minds in the corridors of power, what will.

My only hope, and it’s a horrible and sick hope, is that a massive ice melt (below 1m sqkm) in the Arctic, and the consequent crazy weather that all that heat venting back into the autumnal atmosphere will create, might be enough for global leaders to finally realise that the planet is more important than their backers. Sadly whatever it is, many people will have to die, and massive destruction will have to occur. And that’s beyond repulsive to me.

Ryan in New England

Dan, I have thought about that very thing. We’ve been seeing very extreme weather events for years now, and none of them wake anybody up. Quite the opposite. Those of us who point out that this is in fact climate change manifesting itself, we are overcome with cries from the deniers that this is just weather. And everyone buys it. It’s just a freak storm, or drought, or fire or heatwave. Never mind that things are happening exactly the way scientists warned us they would. Sure, the very things we are seeing now were predicted to happen, but that’s just a coincidence.

I agree with Robert here, that people make the difference. I think the change is happening at a ground level, and eventually enough people will understand the reality of climate change that it will all just shift. I’m going to mangle it, but it’s like that quote about the thing seeming impossible until it just happens. I know it’s a little different because it doesn’t involve economic systems, but I always think about the shift for marriage equality when I get depressed about people not reacting to climate change fast enough. Gay marriage seemed impossible for so long, and then the tide just turned, and now it’s just normal. I also am thankful for all the scientists who keep plugging away, and all the people working in solar and wind companies who keep plugging away, and all the activists who keep plugging away.

US politics is really crazy though, so you Americans are going to have to work to get this election to come out the right way.

Sidenote: I really think that American fundamentalist Christianity has a large part to do with that US political craziness, due to the way it reinforces the daily habit of cognitive dissonance into millions and millions of people -> the Bible is literally true and inspired word of God, but it not only has so many internal inconsistencies, it really conflicts with modern daily life if taken literally. So, millions of US Christians can happily claim that the earth is 6000 years old while at the same time using smart phones charged by electricity that comes from a nuclear power plant and drive cars powered by fuel that would never have been found without geologists who understood geological time scales and processes. These people can are well trained to post rationalize almost anything.

Abel Adamski

With respect Robert, as an Australian and I am sure other readers and Scribblers from other countries would agree.

It is not just the US, what happens in this election and the election for Senators and Congressmen will shape the future of the whole world and the biosphere and it’s inhabitants, not just humanity’s history
Climate Change — Why 2016 May be the Most Important Election in US History

rustj2015

I can’t locate the source, but I believe the statement is worthy:
…the radical philosopher Istvan Meszaros noted in early 2001, “Many of the problems we have to confront – from chronic structural unemployment to major political/military conflicts…as well as the ever more widespread ecological destruction in evidence everywhere – required concerted action in the very near future…The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that if there is no future for a radical mass movement in our time, there can be no future for humanity itself.”
Thank you, Robert, for your commitment!

I really agree wholeheartedly with this prescient statement. We should all be like Kevin, Ryan and DT. Time to stand up and participate. If we choose not to, then events conspire to make us a part of history in the worst kind of way possible.

Cate

That protest against the fracking storage plan, at Lake Seneca in upstate NY today—it was interesting to me that the great majority of the 56 people arrested were in their mid-50s and above. I suppose this may be because they’re retired and have the time, whereas the younger people are busy with work and family, but I can’t help thinking that those folks in their 60s and 70s come from a long tradition of protest. Protest was what we did—it was who we were—back in 1968, and it’s still in our blood, to join hands against the Man and say, NO EFFING WAY. “Radical mass movement”? We know that, we can do that.😀

Malcolm

Reagan takes at least some of the credit for the Montreal protocol and, hard to believe now but both he and Thatcher not only publicly voiced alarm at anthropogenic global warming but sought out the opinion of scientists … on such matters of science! (similarly George H.W. Bush used cap and trade to effectively deal with acid rain)

So yes, action much earlier would have been great … but by comparison with the current GOP/Conservatives … they were enlightened giants.

JPL

There will be a march in April, from Philly to DC, followed by a sit-in. Will be curious to see if the media ignores this one. Will also be interesting to see which of our presidential candidates acknowledges this action, or even (gasp!) participates. Bet I can guess…

“Sit in with thousands. Save democracy for millions.
MARCH: APRIL 2-11. SIT IN: APRIL 11-16.

It’s time to take mass nonviolent action on a historic scale to save our democracy. This April, in Washington, D.C., we will demand a Congress that will take immediate action to end the corruption of big money in our politics and ensure free and fair elections in which every American has an equal voice.

The campaign will begin on April 2nd with a march from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. where thousands will gather to reclaim the US Capitol in a powerful, peaceful, and massive sit-in that no one can ignore. Over 2,000 people have already pledged to risk arrest between April 11th-16th in what will be one of the largest civil disobedience actions in a generation. Together we can open the door to reforms previously considered impossible and reclaim our democracy. Join us!”

JPL

Robert, I must not have put enough coffee in my Wheaties this morning or something but I can’t figure out what that graphic you posted above is telling us. I read your explanatory caption below the 4 graphs but I’m still looking at them the way my dog looks at me when I try to explain why there are shiny solar panels on our roof now.

…and what your dog is thinking is, ‘hey, dude, how can I pee on that, way up there? What were you thinking!?’ The good life in canine-land.

Another great post on a dire topic, Robert. Thanks again. It would be so much easier just to pick a favorite sports team or take up binge-viewing some mindless series, but at least some of us know: this is serious, and we need to take action. That starts with learning, sharing, and speaking up.

JPL

Another great article. In order to convince U.S. public and our politicians, we need to emphasize how severely the U.S. is going to suffer, as it will severely and soon. NCAR long ago projected that the South and Midwest will be semi-desert by 2060 and mostly desert by 2090.( https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/news/2904/climate-change-drought-may-threaten-much-globe-within-decades). Climate Central calculated that by 2030 half of the top 144 U.S. cities will have as many intensely hot heat index days per year (20 or more) as Phoenix has now. By 2050, it gets much worse with even cities like Syracuse and Portland, Maine, having 60 such days per year.

Here in Pennsylvania, the Democratic establishment led by Sen Schumer and ex-Gov Rendell are strongly promoting pro-fracking Katie McGinty for U.S. Senate instead of anti-fracking Joe Sestak whom I am supporting and who is so far ahead in the polls. Democrats have to win back the Senate as well as keep the presidency. Not only are we not lowering our U.S. and global carbon footprints, our burning fossil fuels, globally breeding of cattle and cutting down forests are all at record levels and still increasing. We absolutely must find a way to get to carbon zero by 2030 at the latest.

Schumer, or schumer-via-Toomey?
The good senator from NY had me impressed in Oregon for years, but not after what I am learning these past two years. A climate disaster. Data at sunlight foundation shows he is big into charter jets to meet with constituents, etc. across the state. Seems that might make sense if he had no valid reason to drive through all those NY communities, but he has a huge reason to: they, too, are his constituency.

Bernie Sanders is so right in his calling out the failures in BOTH major parties.

climatehawk1

– We also need to describe the absolute immediacy of the crisis.
Looking to the ‘end of the Century’ is much too far away from the immediate. It’s like waiting until your burning house is a pile of smoking embers before calling the Fire Dept.
We use the various historical and geological epochs for bookends but somehow we must telescope everything down into one human life span or generation — this is where action is most needed.
“What can I do in my lifetime to ensure that the next generation has a better, or equal, chance of survival?”, is a question in need of answer — today.
Government, civic, and economic discourse and policy must follow this dictate — or all perish.

Sometimes you need a reference point. End of century is what we’ve got — for good or for ill. It’s not just a question of what I can contextualize. It’s what the science aims to define. That’s the box the science has put itself in.

In any case, I do my best to point out current events most likely related to human caused change. Sometimes, the science even catches up😉.

Anne

Echoing what dtl says above, as a species we tend to have a narrow self-interested time frame. Even the very young will think: end of the century? Well, I’ll probably be gone by then.
Groucho Marx nailed it: “Why should I worry about future generations? What have they ever done for me?” The notion of legacy seems to have fallen out of fashion. That selfishness ties in nicely with the convenient incredulity of the more credulous deniers. Perhaps an appeal to enlightened self-interest will shift them? Here’s Jacques Attali (in English, despite the url). http://www.attali.com/en/actualite/blog/social/que-doit-on-aux-generations-futures

Spike

There has been much discussion on the decline of sea ice on Twitter recently, with many scientists rushing to reassure that the decline is slowish and linear, and talking of alarmism.

To my way of thinking sure extent and area may well decline linearly for some time, but I worry about factors like age, thickness, fragility and albedo. If you think about an ice sheet in a thought experiment of the same extent and area as now but imagine it as being very thin then it is clear it could vanish in a very short time – by melting out, being broken up by storms etc… So I worry that as ice volume goes down, as thickness declines, as Arctic heatwaves worsen, we will see a sudden and dramatic change. This is just musing based on simple thought processes and may be completely wrong, but I don’t think the linearity so far is as reassuring as it’s being sold as.

I think you’re probably right Spike. If the earth is like a glass of water with ice on a sunny day, and the Arctic is the ice, that ice will keep the water cool (at 0C) until it’s all melted, and then the temps will sky rocket. A great deal of multi year ice melted out in the Beaufort last year, and there is still a lot of extra heat in the water around the ice. The ice last year was soft and rotten, at least according to the icebreakers that were able to make almost full speed to the pole. So if weather conditions line up the right way (clear weather in May to form melt ponds, wind and storms later in the summer to churn up the warm water, etc) it could dramatically melt out in the next few years.

On the other hand, there might be some negative feedbacks, such as more open water causing more clouds, thus reducing the amount of direct sunlight, etc. I think those will only delay the inevitable though. But like you, I’m only guessing.

My big worry now is not only that a blue Arctic will warm rapidly, wreaking havoc with northern hemisphere weather and agriculture, but that extra warm Arctic will push rain and melting over the whole Greenland Ice Sheet, including the high elevations, rapidly reducing its albedo and rapidly increasing its rate of ice loss.

dan combs

Spike, you are absolutely right. I’ve been saying much the same for a decade now.http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/3/14/04851/2627#comment-33207 , having predicted an ice-free arctic by 2028 at that point. But as we are all far too well familiar with by now, ‘it’s happening faster’ than even my projection of unheard of rapidity ten years ago.

Yeah. It would be one thing if these systems plowed in one after the other for weeks and weeks. So far, most of the moisture is heading toward NorCal. Worth noting that the hot blob is an atmospheric springboard that may keep El Niño going for some time.

Colorado Bob

Radio NZ did a piece on this last week and the reporter on the ground said pretty much everything, including vegetation (and up to 100% of crops) was simply gone. The interviewer said something like ‘well for next time is the govt thinking of more robust buildings’ – reporter ‘this was a cat 5 cyclone, it’s hard to design anything to withstand such a wind’ [my paraphrase, but that was the gist of it]

– Meanwhile, an old nemesis of mine — anthropogenic nitrogen is in the news:
– ‘Endangered’ usually relates to sensitivity.

UC Santa Cruz study links nitrogen pollution to decline of endangered species
…
“Nitrogen pollution is a prevalent atmospheric and biogeo­chemical global change driver, with growing effects on terres­trial, aquatic, and coastal ecosystems,” the researchers write in “Nitrogen Pollution Is Linked to U.S. Listed Species Declines.”

“It starts in the air and water,” said co-author Erika Zavaleta, Pepper-Giberson Chair in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz. “On land, nitrogen pollution ultimately ends up in the soil,” she said. “It’s essentially fertilizers coming out of air and water,” from smokestacks and auto tailpipes.

The authors surveyed 1,400 species listed under the Endangered Species Act, finding 78 that face known hazards from excess nitrogen. The mechanisms of nitrogen’s impacts are diverse, encompassing direct toxicity, depleted oxygen resulting from excess fertilization, and incursions by invasive species that out compete local populations or exclude their food sources.http://news.ucsc.edu/2016/03/zavalata-bioscience.html

Spike

I remember when the Stockholm Institute came out with their planetary boundaries work that Nitrogen flux was one of the boundaries we had absolutely smashed through, with phosphate not far behind. And I read recently that the melting Greenland ice sheet is now adding significant amounts of the latter to the Atlantic.

Kevin Jones

‘One challenge is that regulations have not kept pace with the steady growth of nitrogen pollution. Fertilizer use, leguminous crop agriculture, and fossil fuel burning have more than doubled the amount of global reactive nitrogen, and in the United States, human-derived nitrogen additions are thought to be fourfold greater than natural sources.

Despite this trend, “existing laws and policies to protect biodiversity were largely developed before these threats were fully recognized,” the authors state.’

In a study of how global warming will affect nine crops that make up half the region’s food production, scientists found that up to 30 percent of areas growing maize and bananas, and up to 60 percent of those producing beans could become unviable by the end of the century.

Abel Adamski

3 million euro laser machine brought in to search for world’s oldest ice in Antarctica

TAS VAN OMMEN: The ice is a fantastic recorder of many different things in the climate environment it tells us about how much rain and snow, it tells us how windy the climate is and it tells us about temperatures.

And when we put all those things together we can actually track how past climate systems like El Nino have influenced Australia and Antarctica.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The oldest ice core in the possession of scientists is 800,000 years old and was drilled out from 3 kilometres below the surface of Antartica more than a decade ago.

Professor Eric Wolff from Cambridge University in the UK was part of the team that’s been studying that sample.

PROFESSOR ERIC WOLFF: Probably the key result is proving that the carbon dioxide record of the last 200 years is completely unusual compared to the previous 800,000.

What we’ve done to the atmosphere in the passed 200 years is really something new.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Scientists are now hoping to find ice that is more than a million years old.

According to Dr Van Ommen that will enable scientists to develop more accurate models about how climate change will affect the world.

TAS VAN OMMEN: So the really big puzzle in the way the climate system has behaved over the last million or more years, we’ve had for most of that time ice ages that come and go about every hundred thousand years and around about 800,000 years ago that pattern changed to a much more rapid waxing and waning of about 40,000 year.

We don’t know what actually caused that but we think it might be to do with greenhouse gas and co2 in the atmosphere naturally changing through that time.

It would be really handy to actually answer that question if we had an ice core that actually went through the time because ice cores are fantastic for measuring past atmospheres.

FELICITY OGILVIE: And what will it change in terms of future predictions for climate change to actually be able to examine an ice core that is more than a million years old?

DR TAS VAN OMMEN: So if we get some really old ice and track the change in the climate we can start to get our climate models to reproduce what’s happened in the past more faithfully.

FELICITY OGILVIE: No one has been able to find a million year old ice core yet.

IMO, not being a scientist but maybe attention should be paid to cross relating with Geological and ocean current changes, I assume that however is already being done

Keith Antonysen

Somethingg that should give people a jolt is that Dr Spencer ( climate change skeptic ) has acknowledged a big jump in temperature as processed from satellite data for January and February 2016.
Not such a great occurrence, will be hidden at end of month when average global temperature is processed.

Colorado Bob

Get ready for rain: climate change is already driving an increase in extremes of rainfall and snowfall across most of the globe, even in arid regions. And this trend will continue as the world warms, researchers report today in Nature Climate Change.

The role of global warming in unusually large rainfall events in countries from the United Kingdom to China has been hotly debated. But the latest study shows that climate change is driving an overall increase in rainfall extremes1.

“In both wet and dry regions, we see these significant and robust increases in heavy precipitation,” says Markus Donat, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who is the study’s lead author.

Sydney is in the midst of a spider boom, with “perfect conditions” leading to more offspring than usual surviving and resulting in many plants and other objects being draped with silken webs, according to the Australian Museum.

David Bock, who manages the museum’s Search and Discovery section, said the warm, moist start to summer had triggered a surge in many insect numbers – such as moths and butterflies – which were now providing abundant food for spiders and other predators.

While female spiders often lay 50-100 eggs with only a few offspring surviving, many more were doing so, producing second and third generations in the season, Mr Bock said.

Mark from OZ

Good stuff Abel!
Nice video! Educational for all!
I’m 800 k’s south of Sydney on the M’ton Peninsula and just today (at work) the colleagues asked if I could get the Huntsman off the wall. It’s a professional services firm and the cheeky little ‘juvenile’ ( ~15 cm / 6 “across) was right near the entrance to the big conference room. I’m used to them at home but the office was a first.

Clients in the lobby and all that added to the urgency!

With a nudge from a soft bristle broom, they land (via gravity) in the waiting empty rubbish bin where I release them outside. Note: It’s wise to gently shake the bin to keep them from gaining purchase or these astonishingly fast climbers will be up and out in a jiff; they’re more than happy to ‘escape’ via your bin gripping hand, them arm then torso as their default threat avoidance is to go ‘up’ to get away.

They are not a threat to humans really and they do good work by ‘hunting’ undesirable indoor insects. It’s just their size and speed- and they could easily be a stunt double (often were in Hollywood movies) if the main tarantula was unavailable. Their ‘look’ is what causes the human ‘gasps’.
And, they don’t need / use a web; they’ll run down their prey-hence the fitting name.

– Hardly a week goes by when I’m not wrangling some critter out of harm’s way (usually human) – insect, reptile, mammal, or avian. Guiding paper wasps out of rooms and through windows demands soft patience — they want to leave ASAP.
For spiders I always have a commercial yogurt container handy. A little gentle guiding and they get a little ride to the outdoors. Though with the Aussie Huntsmen one would need a bigger container — maybe a tub.🙂

– One of the people that I worked with in the Monarch Program out of Oceanside,CA was spider wrangler for movies like “Arachnophobia”.
Steve Kuthcher:

‘So to get insect and arachnid stunts done, the biggest shot-callers call Steven Kutcher, a 68-year-old entomologist who has worked on over 90 movies in the past 30 years. (His big break was feeding rye grass to 3,000 African locusts on The Exorcist II.)

There’s a reason he gets so many gigs. “My work looks like it’s supposed to look,” he says. “If you see flies walking around a sandwich onscreen, that’s what it really is—flies walking around a sandwich.”

Abel Adamski

hink global warming is a recent phenomenon? Well, climate scientists have some news for you.

An international team of researchers, including Australian scientists, have traced humanity’s influence through greenhouse gas emissions on creating extreme weather events right back to 1937.

Climate scientists have in recent times become more confident in ascribing individual extreme weather to climate change, with the tendency having been to focus on recent, newsworthy events, including Australian heatwaves.

But the research group behind the latest paper – published on Tuesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters – sought to look back as far as possible to detect the earliest event that human activity – such as burning fossil fuels and clearing forests – could be said to have increased the chances of it occurring.

Specifically, they studied years that had at that point set a record as the hottest, along with record warm summers. They looked at global events and also those on a regional scale in five areas, including Australia and Europe.

The earliest extreme event the researchers found climate change had made significantly more likely was the then record breaking hot year across the planet in 1937, a time when the Spanish Civil War was still raging, the Hindenburg crashed and Joseph Lyon was Australian prime minister.

Abel Adamski

PANAJI: Rapidly decreasing presence of marine phytoplankton, a micro-algae consumed by small fish and responsible for reducing carbon dioxide in sea water, in the western Indian Ocean due to global warming may reduce the oceanic region to an ecological desert, scientists have warned.

A joint study conducted by scientists at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa has revealed the quantum of phytoplankton has witnessed an alarming decrease at the rate of 20 percent over the last six decades.

Earlier studies had described the western Indian Ocean as a region with the largest increase in phytoplankton during the recent decades. On the contrary, the current study points out an alarming decrease of up to 20 percent in phytoplankton in this region over the past six decades, says the study led by Matthew Roxy, a climate scientist at the Pune-based institute.

The study has pointed out that the drop in phytoplankton in the western Indian Ocean is particularly alarming, because the oceanic region hosts one of the largest concentrations of marine phytoplankton blooms in summer.

Abel Adamski

One of the most critical questions surrounding climate change is how it might affect the food supply for a growing global population. A new study by researchers from Brown and Tufts universities suggests that researchers have been overlooking how two key human responses to climate—how much land people choose to farm, and the number of crops they plant—will impact food production in the future.

Cate

I think food supply is where the climate change SHTF for Canadians and Americans—shortages and skyrocketing prices leading to hoarding and price-gouging. When this starts happening in their own local grocery stores and food markets, people might start realising that this thing is coming home, it’s not just something that affects some far-away country that you can’t even find on a map, even if you ever heard of it…

Keith Antonysen

The US can learn much from the Australian election of 2013, Abbott on being elected sought to close down all Agencies involved with climate change he could get away with. While Abbott has been deposed, the extreme right still have an very unhealthy influence on government.

While the CSIRO will bear the brunt of the sector’s job losses, with chief executive Megan Clark telling staff 500 jobs would go following the four-year $114.8 million budget trim, other agencies are slated to shed staff as a result of funding cuts announced last week.

“This is a government that has shown a disdain for scientific research,” Mr Butler said. “From the Prime Minister down, it has regularly denigrated the work of scientists here in Australia and internationally around the area of climate change.”

Last week Treasury launched a Productivity Commission inquiry into disaster relief funding with its terms of reference omitting any mention of climate change, noting only that “the impacts and costs of extreme weather events can be expected to increase in the future with population growth and the expanding urbanisation of coast lines and mountain districts near our cities”.

Axing the ACCSP may also put at risk Australia’s ability to receive information from other agencies. Australia’s area of expertise includes the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, information the program shares with international bodies, receiving access to their work in turn on other regions also important to Australia’s climate.

“Climate change has not gone away,” said Dr Raupach. “The best scientific assessments indicate that Australia could be subject to warming over the 21st century that could range from less than two to more than five degrees.”

Phil

Unfortunately this will not affect Turnbull and his government. Science and scientific fact is not compatible with the particular ideology driving that Government. Also, what better way of eliminating one’s future potential liability for climate change damage if you close down key research into the regional consequences of said climate change.

And while things are tightening, this crowd will probably get re-elected latter this year for another three years of no action but plenty of ‘Greenwash’, further gutting of renewable energy and the further exploitation and attack on the bottom 98 per cent for the benefit of the top 2 per cent.

Colorado Bob

JPMorgan Chase & Co. became the latest big bank to pull back from coal.

The New York bank will no longer finance new coal mines around the world and will end support for new coal-fired power plants being developed in “high income” countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, JPMorgan said in a policy statement on its website.

JPMorgan is joining a growing list of financial institutions including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co. that have pledged to stop or scale back support for coal projects. It’s part of a broader divestment campaign led by environmental groups including San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network looking to move the world’s economies beyond fossil fuels.

Colorado Bob

Abel Adamski

This species of dragonfly has particularly fragile larvae, which are incredibly sensitive to changes in weather. The migration probably mirrors a change in seasons, for example, the species might leave India in the dry season, heading for moist conditions in Africa.

– Thanks, Abel.
– Most fascinating adaptations and genetic ‘programming’ of successive generations carrying on the species across the globe.

“These dragonflies have adaptations such as increased surface areas on their wings that enable them to use the wind to carry them,” says Ware. “They stroke, stroke, stroke and then glide for long periods, expending minimal amounts of energy as they do so.”

While some dragonflies are thought to fly direct to their destination, using air currents and even hurricane winds to catch a ride, others might stop along the way if they spot an appropriate place to lay their eggs, such as a puddle or freshwater pool.

The hatching process takes a few weeks, after which the young dragonflies will continue their parents’ journey across the globe, creating travel habits that cross generations.’

Abel Adamski

Courtesy of ClimateCrocks
The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.
– George Orwell

CONCORD, N.C. — Donald Trump’s rally here began with the candidate asking all attendees to raise their hands and take an oath to vote for him, while extended barriers cordoned off the press and plainclothes private intelligence officers scoured the crowd for protestors.

These new tactics, which the Trump campaign has introduced over the past week, represent refinements by Trump and his staff in their quest to control the atmosphere and message of his often unruly rallies.

The effects of climate change have been severe in Mongolia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. In 2009 and 2010 alone, around 8.5 million livestock died — consisting mostly of goats, sheep, cows and horses — as a result of extreme weather conditions known as a “dzud,” a summer drought followed by a heavy snowfall.

The phenomenon is unique to the East Asian nation, exacerbated by the fact that around one-third of the country’s work force depends on animal husbandry and livestock herding to earn a living. And this year, dzud is once again threatening livelihoods.

Since November 2015, large parts of the country have been experiencing very low temperatures of up to minus 40 degree Celsius, followed by heavy snowfall that has covered around 90 percent of Mongolia’s territory. This has resulted in sharp reductions in plant life used for livestock feed and rendering pastures — and even basic services such as transportation — largely inaccessible.https://www.devex.com/news/for-mongolians-climate-change-is-as-personal-as-it-gets-87832

Abel Adamski

India’s next weapon against climate change? The heat-tolerant dwarf cow

THIRUVANANDHAPURAM, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Worsening heat, fodder shortages and the threat of drought are forcing many hard-hit dairy farmers in the Anantapur area of India’s southern Kerala state to reduce their herds, experts say.

“This is nothing less than a catastrophe,” said Ananthakrishnan Kannappan, a livestock agent for 30 years in Anantapur. “This is the first time that due to lack of water and fodder, farmers are eagerly competing to sell off their livestock for throwaway prices.”

But the solution to the problem is simple and small, livestock experts argue: heat-tolerant dwarf cows.

A team of researchers from Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University and the state government’s Animal Husbandry Department are now promoting a switch to Vechur and Kasargod cattle, two local varieties known for being easy to raise, resistant to diseases and – most important – better at tolerating high temperatures than the more popular crossbred cattle.

“High-yielding crossbreed varieties of cattle can faint or even die during hot and humid summer days,” said E.M. Muhammed, an expert on animal breeding and genetics at the university. “Our natural breeds can better withstand the effects of climate change.”

Dwarf cows, on the other hand, appear to carry a “thermometer gene” that allows them to better tolerate high temperatures, researchers said.

Dwarf cows were already gaining popularity among some farmers because they consume less food and water than conventional cattle varieties, the experts said. Small-scale farmers need only one or two dwarf cows to meet the milk needs of their households, they said.

It can take ages to boil a kettle then when turned off it keeps going.
This segment illustrates how fast Methane release is now happening-it is in Waking the Giant (Bill McGuire) published 2012.
PERMAFROST MELT – Monitoring by Russian scientist suggests that the permafrost shell is already starting to break up in places, releasing millions of tonnes of methane into the atmosphere of the Arctic. This could, however, be just the tip of the iceberg, with up to 1.4 trillion tonnes of gas hydrate and methane gas suspected of being trapped beneath the submarine permafrost in the region. Especially worrying is the observation that up to 10 percent of this area is now being punctured by so-called taliks areas of thawed permafrost that provide avenues for the ready escape of methane and opportunities for warmth to penetrate deep into the frozen hydrate beneath. This is a recipe for a climate catastrophe. Natalia Shakhova of the University of Alaska’s International Arctic Research Centre, and her co-workers, are concerned that up to 50 billion tonnes of methane could be released abruptly and without warning from the Arctic sea bed, pushing up the methane concentration of the atmosphere 12-fold virtually overnight and driving cataclysmic warming. This, in turn, would likely lead to further methane release as permafrost on land thawed rapidly to release its store, and as wetlands – already big methane producers – spewed out even more. (I add here that only months ago it was discovered methane release continues during winter freeze on the tundra as plants act like chimneys. This data has not been fed into computer models until during this winter Arctic season.)

Prof Wade Allison in his latest book Nuclear for Life ‘the atmosphere is tiny, equal in mass to a layer of water just ten metres thick around the world’

Methane is a light gas that goes higher than CO2. It forms a veil travelling south at the rate of 1 K a day with the spin on the Earth. It comes down in storms acidifying land and seas as it goes. At the time I learnt this New Zealand had about 6 years before Methane mainly Arctic gas then, would reach us. White whales were seen in our waters this season for first time ever – they had escaped the Arctic and heading for Antarctic. Scroll down to Sam Carena’s red graph on this page- it shows that a large area of methane hovers now above Australia, NZ’s next-door neighbor – the data is taken from satellites. https://robertscribbler.com/2016/02/26/2-c-coming-on-faster-than-we-feared-

Clearly other sources of long captured methane are releasing. 80% of volcanoes on the planet are subterranean. They will activate with changes in sea currents, sea warming and added weight from land based ice melt. In recent years submarines strong enough to take the pressure have filmed sea floor where bubbles confirm an active volcano. The methane continues to the atmosphere.

I included these links in a letter I sent to NZ politicians media (largely oil funded) scientists I could think of on advice of Stuart Scott Climate Matters who pointed out politicians will only act when they sense a voting bloc.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xdOTyGQOso June 2015. Peter Wadhams is Professor of Ocean Physics, and head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge. He talks about sea level rise from 4.48 mins in.

First, the level of methane release in the Arctic has currently not yet tripped the switch. More specifically, we have some indications that methane release there is increasing. But the current signal is still much, much smaller than the human emission. To be fair, the monitoring is grainy and any signal would have to be pretty strong to stand out in the global monitors.

Second, Arctic methane emissions are currently in the range of 24 to 34 megatons. We don’t have scientific proof at this time that this is part of a ramping pace. This is primarily due to a, what I would consider to be irresponsible, lack of study.

Third, some of the sources here have been known to exaggerate. Paul Beckwith is one whom I’ve had a problem with in the past for making unscientific statements.

Fourth, S&S produce findings that need following up on. So why is no-one following up to confirm what they report?

Fifth, there is vocal disagreement between AMEG and a number of well established scientists about the potential rate of release for Arctic methane and related carbon stores. AMEG believes, and asserts strongly, that near term large methane release is inevitable and imminent. Schmidt and Archer believe that hydrate is self stabilizing. To be clear, Schmidt was one of the first scientists to develop models RE hydrate stability and Archer is very well respected for his own work. These two blocks generate a fracture in the science with the established well respected scientists stating that a rapid release so soon is a very, very low risk at this time and AMEG saying it’s imminent.

Sixth, Paleoclimate seems to provide more support for Schmidt and Archer in that there is no evidence of a hothouse inducing release occurring at current heat forcing levels. There is, however, some paleoclimate evidence of smaller releases in the range of enough to add 100-500 ppb atmospheric methane during ice age periods when sea levels fell and upset clathrate stability by reducing pressure on the deposits.

Sixth, a middle group of Arctic specialists believes that the Arctic will probably produce enough feedback to equal 10-30 percent of the human emission by the end of this Century.

Seventh, there appears to be some evidence that AMEG has sensationalized the problem in order to push dubious and dangerous geo engineering responses to human forced climate change. Many of these responses include solar radiation management which model studies have indicated have dubious chance for success and have the potential to negatively impact billions of people by greatly increasing drought risk. To be fair, pretty much everyone supports the notion of atmospheric carbon capture, which AMEG also supports. But we should be clear that most non land management based atmospheric carbon capture schemes are very high cost with limited potential impact dependent on massive scaling.

Eight — it is less likely that the Earth system is capable of producing an annual emission that equal the current human emission which is about six times faster than anything we have a clear resolution for in the geological record. Given the potential size of the clathrate store, it is possible that a large methane burst could exceed the human forcing on a scale of years to maybe a decade or two. But with continued emissions, the human forcing quickly over-rides. So we should be very clear here that the human forcing is this issue of greatest concern and that cutting carbon emissions is the necessary response. Geo-engineering, even if it beat the odds and managed to be effective would just deal with some, but not all, of the symptoms arising from continued emissions.

Ninth, to get an Earth System response that exceeds the human forcing, you basically have to stack up positive feedbacks in domino style fashion. We have no evidence that the Earth System works this way. However, there is a danger, and a very real one, that the human emission could set off a runaway emission from the Earth System that, though smaller than the current very large human emission, is enough to lock warming in for a period of hundreds to thousands of years and to set off a new hothouse extinction on the order of the PETM or the Permian. My view is that such a risk is real and absolutely necessitates a rapid reduction in global carbon emissions. Most scientists have identified a moderate risk for this kind of runaway when the Earth warms by between 1.5 and 2.5 C above preindustrial. A range we are getting uncomfortably close to now.

Tenth — the topics you’ve raised and the way you’ve raised them presents a wedge issue that many people have difficulty responding to rationally. I will be moderating responses to this thread in order to keep the discourse productive. Any outrageous or unfounded statements will be blocked. Links to Paul Beckwith, whom I’ve found often produces unscientific and outrageous statements and assertions, are not appreciated.

Abel Adamski

A motion passed at the party’s state council calls on the government to “arrange and hold public debates/discussions” between scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and “independent climate scientists”.

The motion says the events should cover “the global warming/climate change debate”; “the claims by the IPCC”; and the statement “is all the science settled”.

A second motion called on the Turnbull government to hold an inquiry into Australia’s engagement with the United Nations on climate change and report back to the party by mid-year.

But an amendment by NSW MLC Catherine Cusack, supported by left faction powerbroker Michael Photios, ensured the motion was sent off to the party’s platform committee for consideration at a later stage.

The motions – which were debated after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had left the room following his speech – reveal the level of climate change scepticism among the Liberal base in NSW.

Mr Turnbull has been accused of compromising his principles on climate policy since taking the prime ministership from Tony Abbott, who had previously described debate around the science of climate change as “absolute crap”.

Conservative government MPs warned Turnbull not to stray to the left on climate change when he took the leadership.

The federal government says it still intends to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which funds renewable energy infrastructure.

Kevin Jones

Maple sugar producers in my neck of the woods once they see the 14 day outlook will be dripping more tears than their trees dripping sap. Avg. 40F hi and 20 lo is normal for time of year. Which is about what they need. 50’s (& two 60’s) for highs forecast with hi 30’s-mid 40’s for lows…. They’ve already made quite an investment in labor–tapping, fixing tubing and leaks, hitching everything up, etc;…. What I’m saying is this looks like the worst season in history for that business in my area. Once the trees ‘bud out’ it is game over. If this forecast doesn’t do that I’ll eat my hat. (season normally runs mid-March to mid-April, or so…)

12volt dan

Same thing going on here in mid Ontario. last week temps were too cold for the sap to run. the next 2 weeks look like the temp won’t be under 0 C. Not good since the best runs are when it gets below freezing at night. I doubt there will be much here this year

dnem

I’m gonna take a crack at those graphs. They present four scenarios with two different assumptions. The top left panel assume a transient climate response of 2 C per each TtC of cumulative carbon emitted. The other three panels assume a transient response of 1.5 C per TtC – a climate a bit less sensitive to CO2 forcing. We are more used to looking at sensitivity to a doubling of CO2, but same idea.

The steadily increasing curve to the left on each panel is BAU emissions. The little black squares represent emissions to date – note they are all the same. Imagine them climbing up the BAU curve into the future and then making an abrupt right turn and beginning to trace one of the temperature increase lines down. That’s the trajectory emissions must take out to about 2045 to limit warming this century to the temperature labeled curve. I assume emissions will need to stay on the trajectory until the reach zero. The four panels imagine reductions from BAU of 2.4%/year at high and lower sensitivity. The two right panels imagine reductions on 1.4% and 0.7% at lower sensitivity.

So the longer emissions stay on the BAU curve, the less likely we are to ever hit one of the lower temperature increase curves – we just leave ’em behind. The longer we wait, the steeper the downward trajectory we need to get on to trace an emissions reduction scenario that limits warming.

Any way you look at it, we need an abrupt change in emissions behavior – a dramatic inflection point – VERY SOON, to have any hope of limiting warming to a manageable number.

JPL

Shawn Redmond

Wonderful blog, very informative. Keep up the fight! I often think of Joseph Jastrow’s quote ” The temptation to deceive is as old as the human race and so is the inclination to succumb to deception, which is credulity. ” It would seem this is overwhelmingly true of the general populace. How do we over come self deception?

The climate change issue in the US is also of very high importance for the rest of the world.
The blocking of the US supreme court to enable US action on climate change could be considered as a crime against humanity.

Kevin Jones

On ESRL GMD’s site for Mauna Loa they’ve added Feb. ’16 to their last five years chart. Highest CO2 avg. for one month yet. Interestingly, having dropped 2015 Annual Growth rate below 3ppm earlier, it has been upped to 3.05. Beating 1998’s 2.93 ppm CO2 Annual Growth Rate of 2.93 which was previous fastest.

Kevin Jones

…and Feb. ’16 comes in 3.76 ppm CO2 above Feb. ’15. A rate of 37.6 ppm/decade. 376ppm/century. Get a grip, humanity. Get a grip, billionaires. There will be no safety nor comfort for anyone in a world anything like the one were plunging towards.

Ryan in New England

Fantastic post, Robert. Thank you for being honest, accurate, and saying the things that need to be said. Many Democrats I know are favoring Hillary, partly because she seems very liberal and down to Earth compared to the xenophobia and fact-free rhetoric of the Republicans, and partly because they think Bernie’s desire for universal healthcare and college are some pie in the sky idea. They’re ok with Hillary’s support for current foreign policy which spends trillions on unnecessary wars and a defense budget larger than the world’s, but spending that money here at home on ourselves is somehow unacceptable. They aren’t aware that Bernie is very serious and educated about climate change, whereas Hillary is completely supportive of fossil fuels, including fracking. So a vote for anybody other than Bernie is a vote against you’re children, grandchildren and everyone else in the world and their progeny as well. This election will affect humanity and the world more than any election in history, no matter who wins. Either we seal our fate and guarantee this century is our last as an organized, complex society, or we start getting serious and do everything we can to turn this ship around.

And thank you for the compliment above. It means a lot to me. It’s very difficult at times to live a different lifestyle than the one society insists I must live. Instead of my “sacrifices” being respected or even understood, my meager existence is looked at almost as if it’s un-American. Not having a large carbon footprint is somehow a moral failing on my part, rather than an admirable consideration about my environmental impact. I’m viewed by most people in my town as a weirdo for not having a car. You “need” a car in Connecticut, and the only people that walk or pedal around here are “losers” who are homeless or those with D.U.I.s. On FB I see pictures of everybody seemingly trying their best to be good consumers; getting brand new SUVs for their high school aged son/daughter, flying to as many places as possible, buying ever larger homes, having as many kids as they can afford, all the while having no clue about climate change or how many other families are doing the same thing all across the world. There’s already 7 billion people besides those here in the U.S., and they need food and water, and they have dreams of using the same resources that we have our eyes on. This century already is, and will continue to be, a period filled with global conflicts.

JPL

WAPO has become the personal megaphone for Amazon’s Jeff Bezos now that his holding company, Nash Holdings, took ownership. Amazon’s business model relies on expansion of the status quo, massive, just-in-time, petrol-based shipping and distribution system to keep the profilts rolling in. Bezos likes things as-is, and Bernie is a threat. Expect no positive Bernie press from them.

Taking out super delegates, who go with the lead candidate and should now be counted as unpledged, Sanders is apparently much closer in the delegate count – lagging by about 200. It’s a tough haul for Bernie. But he still has a shot.

mlparrish

Ryan,
If it’s any consolation, the poets understand, and there are a lot of poets.
“At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking”

Kevin Jones

Goddam it, dt. Last Sunday I drove the 5 yr. old up the Connecticut River Valley. 40 miles up the east side of the border between New Hampshire and Vermont. That five year old has none of my genes but I could not love him more if he did. I pointed out the ice free river. Unimaginable. I pointed out flock after flock of Canada Goose. And sea gulls…..

LIMA, March 7 (Reuters) – An indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon took at least eight public officials hostage to demand help from the central government after an oil spill polluted its lands, authorities said Monday.

The Wampis community of Mayuriaga seized a grounded military helicopter late on Sunday, holding crew members and several officials to press for inclusion in the emergency response plan, said German Velasquez, the president of state-owned energy company Petroperu.

– Oil from the BP spill on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., on June 12, 2010. A federal court has prohibited the use of funds to build a beach hotel in Alabama that were earmarked for oil spill restoration. Danny E Hooks/Shutterstock

Ryan in New England

I think this article is very depressing, but is a perfect example of why we need Robert and this blog more than ever. This resource is extremely important for those of us attempting to do what the media has failed on, and that is informing the public and raising awareness about the most important issue to ever face humanity.

What is the matter with these people? Actually. That question is pretty easy to answer. What we observe here is that as media acquisitions by moneyed interests has increased, the reporting on the issue of climate change has fallen.

What will eventually happen if these people come to dominate more and more is what we are seeing now in Australia — which is basically a bureaucratic witch hunt. They’re actively attempting to kill climate science there in Australia. The real question for me is how long they can hold power. (Note the party is called liberals in Australia, but their policies would be republican here).

Kevin Jones

Ryan in New England

Robert, you are absolutely correct. The entire media is now owned by a few corporations, and those corporations stand to make lots of money if things just stay the same.

Mblanc, I would say those numbers sound right to me. My Mother has been living with me for over a year now (which was a big adjustment because I have a small apartment), and she always watches CBS news in the evening and the morning, and I often find myself in the living room on my laptop (like I do now) while she has the news on, so I get to see what is/isn’t covered. I would say I see a short one or two minute story at the tail end of the broadcast, maybe every one to two months, and this isn’t hyperbole. This usually happens when a headline is so big they can’t ignore it and still appear credible, such as COP21 or the Pope’s encyclical, or the current unprecedented conditions in the Arctic.

But that’s different than covering the effects of climate change, which they do almost every day because our extreme weather is more frequent and has grown more severe. They’ll report on record breaking heat, floods, droughts, storms, but will never draw a link between the weather and climate change. They do their best to persuade viewers that climate change is completely unrelated to all the records events we are experiencing…which happen to be a result of climate change.

Ryan in New England

The graphic in the article linked to above indicates that all of the states in the Northeast U.S. set records for the warmest Winter. Here in CT it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case. It’s in the 60s today with temps at or above 70 for the next two days.

Many Germans acknowledge and know quite a lot about the many dangers posed by AGW but with such a powerful car industry and their insane “no speed limit” motorway lanes, is difficult to see how we can stop the relentless pumping of FF CO2 to the big sewer that the atmosphere has become.

I am now in the middle of the French Riviera (Cote d’Azur) and, gosh, this is a paradise for petrolheads. The land where the rich and powerful have their mansions and yachts has been designed for the exclusive use of cars. Quite ironic for a country proud of its bicycle “Tour de France”.

Most streets around here don’t even have a pavement (“trottoir” in French), so it is quite rare to see people walking, apart from places close to the Mediterranean coast. As a result, roads are constantly clogged with cars, vans and lorries, huge traffic jams in early morning and late afternoon, huge amounts of pollution, what a depressing place.

Good post Robert, it will be great if Sanders gets elected, maybe then there might be a glimmer of hope that global temperatures don’t rise much above 2C, as if that wasn’t already bad enough.

– A lesson to be learned — or not.
– The destructive and corrupting tentacles of the fossil fuel industry reach deep into the very fabric of American civil government. Republicans, though not alone, are most agreeable and accommodating — beware.

Wanna see what happens when you rely on the fossil fuel sector and slash taxes? Check out Louisiana

The state of Louisiana has fallen on hard times, and its situation offers some hard lessons. First, don’t let a right-wing ideologue cut your budget to the bone. Second, don’t hang your whole economy on fossil fuel extraction.

The Washington Post reports on the state’s budget crisis:

Already, the state of Louisiana had gutted university spending and depleted its rainy-day funds. It had cut 30,000 employees and furloughed others. It had slashed the number of child services staffers …
…
A few universities will shut down and declare bankruptcy. Graduations will be canceled. Students will lose scholarships. Select hospitals will close. Patients will lose funding for treatment of disabilities. Some reports of child abuse will go uninvestigated.

For eight years, under former Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), Louisiana slashed taxes and played tricks to fill budget holes. Jindal claimed that the tax cuts he pushed through would promote miraculous economic growth and make up for the lost revenue. That didn’t work, of course, just as it didn’t work on a national level under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
…
This year, Louisiana has doled out $210 million more to corporations in the form of credits and subsidies than it has collected from them in taxes.

Kevin Jones

L Racine

Below is a link to an interview with David Archer… in this interview he explains (at 3:35) that (and I quote) “it would take a long time, hundreds of thousands of years.. for global warming to reach down that far and make the hydrates melt and release it’s methane…”

Is this the basis of his ” self stabilizing argument”, arctic melt rate and global heating rate?

Archer believes the Earth Systems responses to human forced warming will be rather slow. His hydrate stability models infer a long timescale for destabilization due to human forced warming. He has, however, admitted that permafrost feedbacks may be sooner. My opinion is that Archer is a bit too conservative. However, he is very well respected by top scientists and produces some pretty fantastic work.

Sanders wins Michigan and defies the pundits and pollsters —-unprecedented!! Nate Silver and 5-38 are eating (their words) “humble pie” for breakfast this morning.
Been busy “feeling the bern” and working to respond to this, yet another, excellent post Robert.
Many people feel it’s too late . . . . that “we’re going down”. Given the facts, that is understandable.
BUT:
What I have witnessed over the past year with the Sander’s campaign has brought forth a sense of realistic optimism that I’ve never experienced before. Even if we go down, I, for one, would rather go down standing UP for something I believe in: social and environmental justice and reverence for life on earth which includes—- at the top of that reverence list—- nonhuman life. All the doomers say this is “ridiculous cheerleading”. I have been called “trite and childish”. So be it.
What does their path look like?

Noam Chomsky: It cannot be overlooked that we have arrived to a unique moment in human history. For the first time, decisions have to be made right now that will literally determine the prospects for decent human survival, and not in the distant future. We have already made that decision for a huge number of species. Species destruction is at the level of 65 million years ago, the fifth extinction, ending the age of the dinosaurs. That also opened the way for small mammals, ultimately us, a species with unique capacities, including unfortunately the capacity for cold and savage destruction.

Under what scenario can Sanders possibly win the Democratic nomination?
Evidently, it would require very substantial educational and organizational activities. But my own feeling, frankly, is that these should be directed substantially toward developing a popular movement that will not fade away after the election, but will join with others to form the kind of activist force that has been instrumental in initiating and carrying forward needed changes and reforms in the past.

DJ LX

Clinton is fond of slamming Sanders for being a single issue candidate (i.e., reform of financial markets), however, there is one issue that trumps everything else– climate change. Sanders supports a tax on CO2 emissions in order to discourage their use in favor of conservation and renewables (which would become more affordable vis-a-vis fossil fuels). Clinton, to my knowledge, hasn’t come out in support of a tax on CO2 emissions. This alone, is reason to support Sanders and to pressure Clinton to advocate for a tax on CO2 emissions so that we leave the damned stuff in the ground.